


First Step

by yujacheong



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Childhood, Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gen, Indentured Servitude, Jakku, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-10-26 21:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20749058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujacheong/pseuds/yujacheong
Summary: Rey makes a friend.“Why don’t you just walk away?” interrupts Ben, his question seeming intended to deflect hers. “All you need to do is take that first step. No one will miss you. You’re worth so much more. In fact—”





	First Step

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skatzaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/gifts).

There is no slavery on Jakku. Slavery, you ask? Ah, but that would be _illegal_. The galaxy has _laws_.

They prefer to use other words instead, words that are uttered but never written down. Words, for example, like “indenture,” opaque enough to be used as a shield. Or, more common, they don’t bother using any words at all whatsoever to describe these sorts of arrangements. Certain things don’t need to be said if everybody already understands them perfectly well.

But of course not everybody understands…or yet possesses the maturity to understand.

Rey is a child when she is sold to Unkar Plutt, although technically speaking it was never an actual _sale_. It was more like a “loan” – yes, call it a loan to good folk in dire financial need – with the only thing of value they possess, their little girl, offered up as the requisite collateral. As soon as those good folk return to repay the loan with interest – this is a business, you understand, not a charity – Rey will be free to go.

In the meantime, she must work. Otherwise, the cost of her maintenance will be added to the loan principal, and this is not ideal, given that the loan has a compounding interest rate in excess of three hundred percent. None of this is explained to her. “You will earn your keep,” says Unkar Plutt simply.

She is too young to work as a scavenger, so she is made to help clean and refurbish the smaller, fiddly bits of salvage the scavengers bring in. She also watches the inventory whenever Unkar Plutt wants to take a nap.

This is when she meets _him_.

“Hello there,” he says.

*

Rey grows older, and she’s learned to understand the meanings of the words other people don’t want to say aloud. Her parents do not return to settle their debt.

All the while, faces come and go. It’s a hard life on Jakku; few stay. Those who do, well, usually they stay because they have no choice, because they’ve been indentured – like Rey.

Either that, or they’re harmless old eccentrics with inscrutable motives like Ben.

“You have a choice. Everyone has a choice, Rey,” Ben says.

Rey shrugs, mixing her quarter-portion into a small bowl of precious clean water with one finger and waiting the requisite two and a half seconds for the chlorophyll quickbread to set and rise. She thinks Ben is just being philosophical, and she has little taste for philosophy when she only gets a meal once per day. “I’m barely keeping up with my maintenance as it is,” she says. “I think I’m going to become a scavenger. I’m worth more as a scavenger.”

Ben peers at her through the bright, midafternoon sunlight. His blue eyes are intelligent and unclouded, glinting with good humor. You wouldn’t know he was anything more than a greybeard in tattered robes, and he looks like he’s spent most of his life in the desert. Everyone else just ignores him like he might as well be invisible. But Ben befriended Rey when she was new to Niima Outpost, and lonely, lightening her heavy heart with lively conversation and easy, undemanding companionship. She doesn’t know much about him, if she’s honest, or why he’s on Jakku or what he does here, but she trusts him. He gives her a good feeling, and Rey generally trusts her feelings.

“You are worth more than any of this.” Ben’s expression is serious as he takes in the depot, Niima Outpost, the entire planet, with a slow wave of his hand.

“Yeah, well, you try telling that to Unkar Plutt.”

*

The best scavenging to be found lies deep within the bellies of the city-sized wreckages of Imperial Star Destroyers. The risks are considerable – one wrong move could mean a stumble that leads to a fall that plunges you to a gruesome death hundreds of meters below – but so are the rewards.

Rey is quite keen on those rewards, and the heights don’t scare her.

Today, she’s got lucky. She’s found an astromech droid motivator in the trash compactor. It must’ve been faulty in some way and disposed of shortly before the Battle of Jakku. Even if it doesn’t work – and if it’s in the trash compactor Rey figures the odds are about even that it won’t – the components are worth five full portions at minimum. This is the best haul she’s had all cycle. She reattaches the clasp of her harness, ready to haul herself back up and out, when the safety strap breaks—

She feels herself falling, weightless, hair whipping about her face in a rush of hot air. In less than one second, she will hit the ground—

Nothingness.

“Really, Rey, you must be more careful. You knew that harness was dodgy.”

“B-Ben, what are you doing here?” Rey’s lying flat on her back. Somehow, she survived the fall. She blinks up at her greybeard friend, who is knelt beside her. “Did you…?” _Did you save me_?

“I sensed trouble and found you here. The Force is with you; you do not seem to be hurt. But Rey, this Star Destroyer is a death trap. It’s only a matter of time.”

Rey sighs and sits up cautiously with Ben’s assistance. He allows her to rest her body against his, holding her gently. She feels confused by what just happened – did she fall or not, and if she fell, how did she survive it? – but Ben’s right: nothing’s broken or bleeding, and she’s barely bruised. It doesn’t seem possible.

“How did you—” she starts. _How did you find me?_

“Why don’t you just walk away?” interrupts Ben, his question seeming intended to deflect hers. “All you need to do is take that first step. No one will miss you. You’re worth so much more. In fact—”

“No,” Rey interrupts, cutting Ben off mid-sentence. He’s been on her a lot about leaving lately. She doesn’t know why. But she does know that if she left without warning, her parents wouldn’t know where to find her when they returned. And besides… “Ben, I’m covering my maintenance. I’m even making a little extra most weeks, and I’ve been paying down the price of my indenture. I’m doing ok for a scavenger.”

“For a scavenger,” he echoes. “Rey, you’re not just a scavenger; you’re a slav—”

_“Don’t say it!”_ cries Rey fiercely, pulling away from the protection of Ben’s arms. _“I know what I am!”_

Ben’s blue eyes are sorrowful. _Do you? _they seem to ask. _I don’t think you do._ But all he says to her is, “Very well, I will respect your decision. Shall I accompany you back to the depot?”

Rey is grateful for his companionship and grateful too that she won’t lose her odd friend over this disagreement. Plus, she’s got the motivator she scavenged, and to her unabashed delight, Unkar Plutt gives her six and a quarter portions for it, not five.

Maybe Rey isn’t going anywhere, but she doesn’t think she’s going in the wrong direction, either.


End file.
